TRUMP: I'm not going to the next debate

Donald Trump at the first Fox News-hosted debate. Scott Olson/Getty Images Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said Wednesday morning that he would not attend next week's debate.

Trump said the Fox News-hosted debate, scheduled for Monday, had caught him by surprise.

"Nobody told me," Trump said on "Fox & Friends" after dominating the primary elections the night before. "And as you saw, I thought the last debate on CNN was the last debate. That was going to be it."

He continued:

And I'm doing a major speech in front of a very important group of people — I think it's eight or nine thousand people — that night. And it was scheduled a while ago. And nobody told me there were going to be more debates.

Trump on Friday had signaled that he was done with the debates. He said at a news conference that they had become a waste of his time, but he did not specifically address whether he would attend the one remaining debate on the calendar.

"I won the debates," he added. "The same people ask you the same questions. So I was very surprised when I heard that Fox called for a debate. Nobody told me about it, and I won't be there."

Trump said he would be speaking at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference instead of the debate. AIPAC reportedly confirmed Trump's attendance on Friday, the same day he was asked about next Monday's Fox debate.

The real-estate mogul has previously complained about one of the Fox debate moderators, Megyn Kelly, even refusing to attend the second Fox-hosted debate after claiming that she would be biased against him. Trump did attend the third Fox debate earlier this month.